War Of The Nerds: Bowzer’s Final Revenge - The Reykjavik Grapevine

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War Of The Nerds: Bowzer’s Final Revenge

Freddi is a beloved Reykjavík arcade that offers everything from old school pinball to new school GTA. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re probably someone who hates fun or perhaps a tourist. Anyway, the cherished institution recently moved from its Ingólfsstræti locale to an underground spot on Bankastræti opposite the punk museum. The opening was fantastic and the future looked bright.

Until…

To complete their new-year-new-me, Freddi decorated the exterior with fancy signs of video game characters like Pac Man and Mario. It was talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before—you get the picture.

Apparently, one very bad samaritan agreed and in the dead of their opening night, stole the Donkey Kong sign. The owners of Freddi immediately posted a Facebook status, pleading for the return of their gorgeous gorilla, even offering a no-questions-asked consequence-free policy. Fans from all over furiously shared the status, demanding the culprit turn themselves in.

Close, but no cigar

But despite widespread anger all over Reykjavík, the thief stayed silent, presumably keeping the booty as a keepsake in their shitty underground studio. Freddi started a silent manhunt, infiltrating groups they suspected but no one talked. Barrels were thrown. Lives were lost—not real ones, just in the video games that patrons played while crying.

Sunna Shabnam Halldórudóttir, the manager of Freddi, gave this statement to the Grapevine. “Besides sending out the word and doing a post there was very little I could do,” she says. “It’s not like the Stjórnarráð or the cops were going to let me access the cameras around. I mean the first time a sign was stolen from us it was Reykjavík City at the behest of more ‘upscale’ shops because our sign wasn’t up to ‘their standards’.” Shots fired.

So if you’re at an afterparty and you see our friend Donkey Kong chilling next to a bong, punch whoever lives there, grab the sign, and steal all their money. That said, we assume the sign will resurface in a few years when the perpetrator gets to their direct amends step of their inevitable AA experience.

What is the Reykjavik Grapevine?

Your essential guide to life, travel and entertainment in Iceland.
Iceland's biggest and most widely read tourist publication. Delivers comprehensive content on all of the main topics of discourse in Iceland at each time: in cultural life, politics or general social affairs. A grand, continuously updated database of Iceland's main restaurants, clubs, cafes, shops, museums, tours and tourist attractions as well as a thorough events listing